Chapter 20 Sable
SABLE
The taste of copper flooded my mouth before I was fully conscious.
Not my blood. His.
I bolted upright, silver magic crackling around my fingers like angry lightning. The underground chamber spun, but worse than the dizziness was the pain lancing through my ribs—deep enough to steal my breath, foreign enough to terrify me.
Thud-thud-pause-thud.
A heartbeat that wasn’t mine hammered against my sternum, irregular and weakening with each beat. My own heart lurched, trying to sync with the failing rhythm.
“Sable.” Astrid’s hands pressed me back against pillows that reeked of sweat. “You’ve been unconscious since yesterday. Your body…” She swallowed hard. “Your body kept moving. Fighting.”
“Fighting what?” Even as I asked, I knew. The phantom bond, that severed connection that should have been over, was still there. It was bleeding his agony into my veins drop by drop.
Another wave of pain hit—in this one, I felt ribs crack. I curled inward with a strangled gasp, copper flooding my mouth again. Not a taste this time. Blood painted my tongue with flavors that made my vampire nature stir hungrily. Wherever Rhys was, he was bleeding, right into me.
“This is impossible,” I panted, wiping crimson from my lips. “The bond was severed. I felt it shatter.”
“Maybe it was.” Astrid crouched beside the bed, her young face etched with worry that belonged on someone decades older. “Or maybe some things don’t break cleanly.”
Before I could process that, thunder rolled. It was boots hitting wood overhead, with military precision. Voices raised in sharp commands echoed down through the stone. I caught scents that made my wolf’s hackles rise.
Fear. Fury. And underneath it all, the sour tone of political maneuvering.
“Something’s wrong,” I said, forcing myself upright despite the way my stomach felt. “That’s not normal pack activity.”
We climbed up through the tunnel to find controlled chaos in the main area of the cabin. Orion wolves moved with purpose—some were cleaning weapons, others poring over maps, discussing options and possible traps.
Logan stood at the center of it all, his alpha presence strained to breaking. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his usual control had frayed at the edges. When he noticed that we’d emerged from below, his jaw went tight.
“Where is Rhys?” I asked. The question came out rougher than I’d intended, my throat still raw like I’d been screaming in my sleep.
“I should be asking you that. He’s missing.” Logan’s voice carried the weight of an alpha watching his pack fracture. “Last night, border patrol found tracks leading into Blackwood territory.”
The phantom heartbeat in my chest stuttered, growing fainter. I pressed my hand to my sternum, feeling that foreign pulse fight to survive.
“How long has he been gone?” I looked at Eve. “What day is it?”
“He took off the day he rejected you.” Logan let out a long breath.
“We’d been able to track him from afar in Orion lands for four days, but then we lost scent of him.
We had to assume he crossed into neighboring territory, Blackwood likely.
” He rubbed his eyes and muttered, “Just about the worst possible direction he could’ve gone.
That was just about the time you started…
” Logan gestured vaguely at my blood-stained appearance. “This.”
I felt it, I realized with sick certainty, when he crossed paths with something that wanted to kill him.
Eve appeared at Logan’s side, flowing dress doing nothing to hide the tension radiating from her small frame.
“I have more news,” she announced to the room.
Shifters around the cabin stopped moving to listen.
“Kenza intercepted a communication with the Eridanus pack in Seattle and sent out two scouts for information. They came back with this.” Eve lifted a scroll bearing seals that made my stomach drop.
“The Southern Council has issued emergency summons. They’ve invited northern pack leaders to join the southern pack alphas.
They’re required to appear within seventy-two hours to address ‘supernatural disturbances threatening regional stability.’” Her wolf flared behind her eyes.
“And guess who’s the only pack not officially invited. ”
I stared at the scroll, pieces clicking together in my mind with the precision of a trap springing shut.
“They know,” I said quietly.
“Know what?” Logan demanded.
I looked around—at wolves preparing for political battle while their beta lay dying in cursed territory, at Astrid standing close enough to bolt if necessary. The official summons reeked of careful timing.
“They know Rhys is gone. The timing isn’t a coincidence.” I met Eve’s eyes, seeing my own suspicions reflected there. “They knew you’d find out, and that Orion wouldn’t be able to attend.”
“Why would they do that?” There was still so much I hadn’t told Eve.
“Because emergency sessions aren’t just about politics.” The words tasted bitter, dredged up from memories I’d tried to bury. “They’re about commerce. The kind that happens in the shadows while all the alphas are distracted by speeches and territorial disputes.”
Understanding dawned on Eve’s face. “Auctions,” she breathed.
“Auctions.” I nodded, watching Logan process the implications.
“They always schedule them just after major gatherings. More buyers, better prices. And during the gathering, with every alpha wolf locked in council chambers, weaker wolves are vulnerable to attack. Easy to pick up and bring to an auction house without the alphas being any the wiser.”
The room went silent except for the quiet clinks of weapons being checked and cleaned.
Astrid moved closer to me. She understood what I was saying—that the summons was exactly what hunters wanted. All the protectors in one place, all the vulnerable scattered and alone, ripe for the picking, and then a quick auction to move them where they couldn’t be found again.
I took a deep breath. “With Rhys gone—”
“You think someone orchestrated his disappearance?” Logan’s hands curled into fists.
“Even the smartest sick bastards I know couldn’t have guessed what would happen between Rhys and I.” The bond throbbed in me. “But I do think someone’s been very patient and watching us.”
“We have to find him,” Logan said. Doubt colored his voice. Attending a council meeting without his beta would signal weakness. Not attending would signal defiance. Either choice painted a target on Orion’s back.
“Send me.” The words escaped before I’d consciously decided to speak them. Heads turned in my direction.
“You?” Logan’s eyebrows rose. “You can barely stand.”
“I’m the only one who can track him.” I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling the weakening pulse. “The bond might be damaged, but it’s still there. I can follow it wherever he is.”
“Absolutely not,” Eve said immediately. “If this is a trap—”
“Then you need someone expendable.” I held her stare. “Someone who isn’t critical to pack survival or political maneuvering.”
Logan’s alpha presence filled the room, power pressing against my skin. “You’re not in a position to bargain.”
“Aren’t I?” I gestured toward the summons Eve clutched. “You need your beta back before that council meeting, or every alpha there will smell Orion’s instability. They’ll start circling, testing boundaries, looking for weaknesses to exploit. There’s only one thing I’d ask in return.”
I paused, letting that sink in before delivering the leverage they could use against me if they wished.
Eve beat me to it. “You need someone to watch Astrid while you’re gone.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Eve’s gaze flicked to Astrid, then back to me.
“Pack protection,” Eve said quietly.
“Full protection.” My wolf rose to the surface, lending steel to my voice. “Permanent membership. Make her Orion. Give her a place where no council summons or auction house can touch her.”
Astrid’s sharp intake of breath was audible, but I kept my focus on Eve. This was bigger than rescue missions or political games. This was about giving the girl I’d raised something I’d never had—a real home and a pack who would be with her until the end.
The silence stretched. Logan and Eve exchanged one of those wordless conversations that came with mated bonds, entire arguments condensed into glances.
“You go for Rhys,” Eve finally said, alpha authority wrapping around each word, “and I’ll formally adopt Astrid into the Orion pack. Full membership, full protection, my personal guarantee.”
“And if I don’t make it back?”
“The offer stands,” Eve said without hesitation. “She stays either way.”
Relief flooded through me. Whatever happened in Blackwood territory, Astrid would be safe. She’d have the belonging I’d never been able to give her.
“We have a deal.” I turned toward the door, already feeling the bond tugging me northward. “I’ll leave within the hour.”
“Sable.” Eve’s voice stopped me at the threshold. “Be careful. Whatever drove him into those lands has been waiting for this for a very long time.”
I nodded, the bond in my chest growing fainter with each passing moment.
“I know,” I said, silver magic flickering around my fingers. “But I’m done being fucked with.”
The bond dragged me north into Blackwood territory, each pulse of pain stabbing me as I ran.
More than half a day passed as I ran, using my dark heritage to mask my wolf scent and quicken my pace.
Blackwood was the next territory, but lay beyond the far corner of Orion lands—eight hours at a fast run—with little more than a knife and my silver magic to protect me.
All the way, Rhys’s pain bled through the damaged connection, vampire venom having its effect.
He was dying. And I was dying with him.
The forest reeked of old blood and older hungers. Even the trees here were too tall, too dark, their branches twisted into shapes that hurt to look at. This was vampire territory, the kind of place where wolves vanished and their bones fed the roots.